


What Will You Tell Them?

by Spider_Man_Mando



Series: The Next Thing [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Gen, I am sorry I am chaos, I can actually tag this time, Iron Fam, Mentioned Michelle Jones/Peter Parker, Morgan Stark will fight you if you insult her brother, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Pass it on, Peter Parker & Morgan Stark are Siblings (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Post-Spider-Man: Far From Home, Press Conference, The iron fam is amazing and no one can tell me otherwise, Tony ain't happy you are going for his kid, he will FIGHT YOU, woooooo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-01
Updated: 2020-05-01
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:22:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23942272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spider_Man_Mando/pseuds/Spider_Man_Mando
Summary: The time has come. The press conference.Peter has been dreading it. He knows that he needs to do it for the public. They want answers.Maybe he needs to do it for himself too.(It seems I can't write summaries)You don't need to read the first fic in the series.
Relationships: May Parker and Peter Parker, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: The Next Thing [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1725862
Comments: 12
Kudos: 100





	What Will You Tell Them?

**Author's Note:**

> Post FFH
> 
> If you are reading my fic, GO ME cause you got past my terrible summary. If you cringed or something similar when you read it, I did too and I wrote it. Thank-you for coming to read my humble fanfic. I hope you aren't disappointed...???

“You knew this was the longest we could postpone this for,” Pepper sighed, coming to stand behind him as she carefully schooled her expression to face the media in the tower’s press conference room, “I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Peter turned to look at her, his eyes lost, “I knew I’d need to speak at some point, but it doesn’t stop me from not wanting to,” he ran his hands through his hair, “I just wished there was more time.” 

It had been a week since the charges against Peter had been dropped. People throughout the globe were getting restless waiting for him to appear and were becoming increasingly more vocal in voicing their annoyance. But Peter hadn’t been ready to face the world yet. He still wasn’t. But they had run out of time. The past week had been for him to prepare for what he was going to say and to practice for the inevitable onslaught that the media would throw at him. Public opinion would not be great if they waited anymore. 

“So do I,” May walked up to her nephew, fixing up his tie and smoothing his hair, “Tony and Morgan should be here in a second. You ready?”

“Will I ever?”

“You’ll get used to it kid.” Tony strode up, dressed in his typical Armani suit, his red prosthetic blending nicely. Morgan, wearing a red dress with gold accents to match her parents, kept pace with her father in a pair of sparkly converse. She grinned at Peter when they reached him, hopping in front of him, “You’re going to do so good! Everyone’s going to love you, and if they don’t, they’re dumb.”

Tony patted Morgan on the head, smiling at Peter,” Yeah, they would be, wouldn’t they Mogoona?”

“Yeah!”

Peter felt himself tearing up a little, “Thanks guys.”

“You don’t need to thank us Peter!” Morgan hugged him around his legs, “We’re family.”

Peter could never imagine he’d be so lucky, but here he was with a sister he never knew he could have.

Pepper cleared her throat, and Morgan took that as her cue to let Peter go. 

“We have to go in now. Everyone remembers what they have to do?” A chorus of ‘yes Pepper’s’ answered her. Pepper grabbed Morgan’s hand, and opened the door to the press conference room. 

The noise was deafening as soon as they entered, and Peter was extremely thankful for the noise dimming earplugs Tony had given him earlier. Tony, Pepper and Morgan led the charge, May and Peter following. 

Happy was already on stage, standing off to the side. Pepper released Morgan to him, and he directed the youngest Stark to a seat on stage, May following and grabbing the little girl’s hand as they sat down. 

Peter stood off to the side behind Pepper and Tony, feeling like every camera was pointed at him, even though he wasn’t at the podium yet. He took in the sign for no flash photography and mentally thanked Pepper for her forethought.

Pepper stepped up to the mic, and the press realizing that the conference was starting, began to sit and quiet down.

“Thank-you all for coming today. Peter will be speaking in a moment, but first my husband would like to lay some ground rules.” Pepper stepped away from the mic, Tony taking her place. The sound of camera shutters filled the silence. 

“I was hoping it’d be longer before I’d have to do one of these again.” Tony said, staring out at the media. “Unfortunately, that didn’t happen because someone thought it’d be a good idea to terrorize my kid.” At ‘kid’, there was a frenzy of pencil scratching and typing, the news outlets eagerly lapping it up as their viewer count began to skyrocket on their live streams of the conference.

Tony took off his typical tinted glasses, his imposing glower cutting across the room, “I am going to let Peter speak next, but if anyone asks any invasive questions that he does not want to answer, you will be warned. If you keep pushing, you will be removed from the room. I will not hesitate.” Tony gave one last glare to the room before gesturing Peter to come over, “And so I present to the world, Peter Parker.” 

Once Tony had finished speaking, Peter stepped up to the mic, the noise rising as questions were called out to him. “Umm, firstly, can everyone save their questions for a minute, I was hoping I could make a statement,” Peter grinned nervously, most of the paparazzi quieting, and the rest following suit after a look from Tony.

“Thank-you. To begin, I’d like to say thank-you to everyone who has supported me in the past few weeks. You are a major reason for why I’m here today. You all kept me going when I felt like my world was collapsing in on itself after I’d just managed to fix it from the Blip.” Several reporters in the room flinched at the name, obviously still deeply affected by it. 

“You made me believe that everything would be all right, and that some day I’d be able to reconstruct my life once more,” Peter took a deep breath, “So thank-you. Shout out to the creators of the #IStandWithSpider-Man movement and all the work you have done to generate support for me, and for stepping in my place to take care of my Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man duties when I couldn’t. I will be taking questions now.”

An onslaught of questions was hurled at him, and Peter struggled to pick out one of the reporter’s that Tony and Pepper mentioned would be respectful. “Ah, the woman with the yellow scarf.”

The rest of the reporters went silent to be able to hear her question and his response.

“Nicole Michaels, Fox News. How does it feel now that your identity is out? Were you ever even planning to tell the world?”

“Nice to meet you Nicole. It’s weird now that my identity is out. It came as such a shock to me when it happened. I thought Mysterio was dead. I never saw it coming. It-it left me feeling violated on a deeply personal level. I never intended to reveal my identity like this. It puts everyone I’m around in danger. I don’t have the nicest or most sane criminals. I kept my identity secret for everyone else’s protection. I just wanted one,” his voice cracked, “one normal field trip. I didn’t think that was too much to ask. Maybe I would have revealed in the future, but it wasn’t even something I was thinking about at the time.”

The woman sat down, as other reporters clamored to be chosen. Peter looked around and pointed, “The man with the purple spotted tie.”

“Liam Clarkson, CNN. Just expanding on what you said. You mentioned that you thought that Mysterio was dead. Does that mean you believe he is actually alive?”

“That is a possibility.”

Peter gestured to another man, “The guy in a purple suit.”

“Mark Green, New York Times. How did you figure out that Mysterio was tricking everyone?”

“I thought that he was a hero, the remaining survivor from another dimension. It didn’t seem out of the realm of possibilities considering what I have seen in the past few years, even before Thanos. I found out thanks to my girlfriend MJ that he was a fake. All the Elementals were. The damage certainly wasn’t, but he had been faking it so that he could gain my trust, as well as the world’s. When he discovered that I had figured him out, he tortured me psychologically so that I was disorientated, and while I was distracted, he ran me over with a train.” 

There were multiple horrified gasps at that and looked at Peter in shock that he was still alive. “After that, he thought I was dead, and then London happened.”

Mark Green sat down, trembling slightly.

A few brave reporters raised their hands to grab Peter’s attention. “The woman in red.”

“Veronica Wolfe, Daily Bugle.” 

Peter swallowed nervously. He hadn’t meant to pick someone from the Daily Bugle.

The woman took a bold step forward, “What do you have to say about the claims from Mysterio about you wanting to be the next Iron Man?” She gestured to Tony, “Doesn’t seem that far a stretch considering that you’re his ‘kid’. In Europe, were you trying to make a name for yourself so that no one could take his legacy away from you? Was that why Mysterio was blamed for the fight? To cover up what you did so that you’d look like the best person to be the next Iron Man?” 

Tony took an angry step towards Veronica at that. Veronica didn’t seem to care as she plowed forward in her questioning, the reporters standing around her warily stepping away with each word spoken. They did not want to be on the end of Tony Stark’s wrath. She pushed the final nail into her coffin, “Was that why you murdered him?”

Tony roared, “How dare you- “

May and Morgan had stood up, Morgan’s glower terrifying for a five-year-old. Pepper and Happy were glaring daggers at the woman, and Happy was gesturing to some of his people to move towards the woman. 

“WAIT!”

Peter stepped in front of Tony who had begun walking towards the stairs, steam pouring out of his ears. Tony glanced at Peter, bewildered, “What the heck do you mean wait kid?!”

“I want to say something to her.” Peter stood his ground, and as Tony regarded him, he realized that Peter needed to say whatever it was. For his own benefit.

“Fine.” Tony stepped away from the stairs, and he could see that Happy’s people had stopped near Veronica if she did need to be removed later. Tony sent a scathing look her way, “You are on thin ice.” 

May and Morgan sat down again, both eyeing the woman. Pepper grabbed her husband by the arm to restrain him. No one was under the false assumption that she’d restrain him if Veronica stepped out of line again though.

Peter took a breath to calm himself, as the room thrummed with the remaining tension. “To answer your first question Veronica, no, I don’t want to be the next Iron Man. I will never be Iron Man. There is only one Iron Man, and there will always only be one Iron Man. I am my own hero.”

Peter stood up just a bit straighter, channeling his inner Stark.

“I am Spider-Man.”

Peter stood away from the podium as the media went nuts.

Morgan hopped up from her seat and dashed over to her Brother, leaping into his arms. “You showed that meanie,” she whispered to him, trademark Stark smirk on her face.   
“I guess I did.” 

Peter still had a lot he needed to figure out. He didn’t quite know what life was going to look like anymore. But as he walked out of the conference room, his family behind him, he knew that he would be able to push through it. He would prove to the world that he was a hero, one that they could rely on.

He would get up, move on. 

After all,  
He. Was. Spider-Man.

**Author's Note:**

> HA! IF YOU ARE READING THIS I HAVE SUCCEEDED!!! GOALS!!!  
> So this is a part of an expanding series hopefully...  
> *laughs nervously*  
> Please comment if you liked my little fic enough for that. Constructive comments/criticism appreciated!


End file.
